CHRISTMAS BOAT PARADE

The sun is shining bright this morning in Key West. Nary a cloud in the sky. The temperature 59 degrees!

I am cold!

Today will go to 64. A heat wave!

Before my northern friends think I am crazy, please understand the following. When you live in a tropical climate all year long, your blood thins. When you enjoy the change of seasons as up north, your blood is thicker. Thinner blood means Key Westers feel the cold!

Key West is loaded with all kind of fun activities. This saturday night, the annual Lighted Boat Parade. Boats are decorated as people do the outside of their homes at Xmas time.

I have been on one of the boats several times. A fun event! It will be cold saturday night during the parade. Whatever the actual temperature is on land, it will be 20 degrees colder on the water. People will be wrapped in winter attire. Not a hard trip to experience, however. Drink and food available. Dancing on the larger boats. If you are with someone you like, a constant close embrace. Combined, these factors tend to warm.

I will miss the Boat Parade this year. The police have decided to have a traffic stop from 7 pm saturday to 2 am sunday. On US 1 and Cross Street. The only way home for me is up US 1 and across Cross Street. A gambler, I am not. I will play it safe and stay home. Perhaps have dinner at Roostica which is up from Cross Street.

Key Westers know how to play. I discovered there is a New Year’s Eve event I was not aware of. In its tenth consecutive year. It is called Dachshund Walk. Would you believe! People walk their dachshunds over a specific route. Dogs and owners playfully attired. The parade route is intentionally short to accommodate the participants’ short legs and long bodies.

There is a serious event of which I was unaware. A Homeless Persons Memorial Day. Roughly 50 homeless people died in Key West this year. A memorial service will be held at the Key West Cemetery on December 21. The remains of the 50 will be interred.

We are one human family.

Did my blog talk radio show last night. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Enjoyed doing it! I thought Pope Francis’ story re showers for the homeless in St. Peter’s Square interesting. The French not wanting anything to do with the new trade pact Obama is pushing because it would mean the introduction of GMOs into France revealing.

Then Greece. A last minute topic. Things were happening in Greece through radio time last night. Greece had riots in 6 major cities sunday. Not the orderly type. Police and protestors fighting. Tear gas smoke engulfing them. Yesterday, the Greek stock market faced its largest one day drop since 1987.

It is all tied into austerity. The Greeks borrowed too much from the European Union. They cannot pay it back. The Greek government has had Greece on an austerity program for several years to help pay the bill. Germany has been strangling Greece in its hard demands for repayment. Austerity has led to a loss of jobs. People cannot feed their families. Farmers cannot sell their produce because people do not have money to pay for them.

All this has led to a build up of the Greek Nazi party. Known as the Golden Dawn Party. They are anti-austerity and cater to the thinking of the suffering people. They are presently the third largest party in Greece.

Greece’s President yesterday announced he will be calling for new elections. There is no question in my mind that the Nazi party is a sure bet for a second place finish. Perhaps, a first. Their influence will be overwhelming.

I know Greece. I have written and talked about Greece the past three years. On my TV show, blog talk radio show, in my KONK columns. Even in my book published last year The World Upside Down. I suggested Greece was a tinderbox. I predicted if there was a third world war, it would not start in the Middle East. Greece was the place. Greeks hate Germans. The austerity Germany has imposed on them one reason. The abuse they were subjected to by the Germans during World War II another.

We live in dangerous times.

Tonight, dinner with Roger and Cheryl. We meet at the Chart Room for drinks and dinner later at the Hot Tin Roof.

I have hit 20 pounds lost on the diet. I am impressed. Only seven weeks.

Enjoy your day!

LATE!

Wow! It’s late! I am starting today’s blog at one in the afternoon. Got delayed this morning in a long business meeting.

Yesterday started with a manicure and pedicure. Tammy and her family moved into their new home last week. Tammy was all excited!

What appeared to be a new mother and baby were at Lee Nails, also. The baby was tiny. I figured two weeks old. The mother told me three weeks. The young mother looked beat. Dark circles under her eyes. You could tell she was up all night with the baby.

The baby was good. Slept the whole time. Probably why she does not sleep at night. The baby was sleeping on Mom’s breast while she was getting a pedicure.

Then to the Plantation Coffee House to read the newspapers. I still cannot get the New York Times on my tablet. Apparently the hacking problem is not yet fully resolved.

Last night began with Don’s Place. Not for long. Don’s air conditioning was kaput. Had one drink. Chatted with Don, Hershel and Stan. Bocce the topic. Obviously. We have to do better when we play tonight. We lost all three games last week. Lost them badly.

The Chart Room was next. I went from a sleeping baby to a sleeping dog. A baby dachshund. Thirteen weeks old. Half Jake’s size.

The dog slept on the bar in front of his mistress the whole time. He sleeps at night, also.

It was time to eat. I decided to go to John Lukas’ Big Ten Sports Pub. I had not been there in a while.

What a business! Here it is summer time. This month and next are Key West’s slow time. Yet John never had less than 30 customers during the two hours I was there. Not to watch sports necessarily. They were eating and drinking and having fun.

I enjoyed a cheeseburger and a drink.

The waitress impressed me. I was sitting at a table. She was working the bar and some of the tables. She had to move her ass! She did! Her name was Anaits. Originally from Venezuela.

I received an e mail this morning from the Egyptian Travel Minister. He was encouraging people to visit Egypt. Good luck!

The rest of my day is set. I have to finish preparing tomorrow’s tv/internet show. When done, take a nap. Play bocce tonight.

The Key West Lou Legal Hour will be discussing some interesting goodies tomorrow morning. Like Bruce Manning, the politics of transgenderism, the Syrian problem, Russia and Saudi Arabia screwing around in the background of the Syrian situation, China owning all panda bears in U.S. zoos, Florida seriously contemplating drug tests for high school athletes.

Plus Neil Armstrong, George Clooney being a descendant of Abraham Lincoln, a 54 year old Montana school teacher who got 31 days in jail for raping a 14 year old student three times, the hacking of the New York Times web site, bottle nose dolphins dying in huge numbers, a recent New Jersey appellate court decision making a person who knowingly texts an auto driver liable for injuries arising from an automobile accident, Switzerland building drive in sex boxes for prostitutes, and a new poll which shows 29 per cent of the people blame Obama for the poor federal response to Katrina.

And more. All interesting.

The Key West Lou Legal Hour airs at 10 friday morning my time. It can be seen on television from Key West through Miami-Dade County. Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. Via the internet world wide. www.weyw19.com.

Enjoy your day!